Bill Kristol

I'm trying to remember.

It's hard for me to, of course, it's hard to put myself back in one's mindset a year ago.

It seemed like the whole thing might work for Trump, right?

I mean, I don't mean it still is very dangerous, don't get me wrong, but Doge plus, you know, everything and sort of just... Everybody folding, the law firms, the universities.

Yeah, yeah.

Just the kind of degree of the authoritarian takeover and the lack of effective resistance early on.

The big thing in those first few months, I remember speaking to donors and stuff,

Why his numbers never go down.

His poll numbers are immovable.

He's, you know, he's got a mystical, magical hold over the American public.

Doesn't feel that way now.

Yeah, no, it all seems like such talk and some phony military action, which is better probably than real military action.

And I still kind of think it's all jostling and whatever to get Trump to the withdrawal he wants, I guess.

I don't know.

But on the other hand, I talked to someone last night who allegedly follows these things and thinks, oh, Trump's really going to hit them one more time in a big way.

And I don't know.

Yeah.

When you look at that Trump tweet, I mean, it's sort of like it's typical, right?

A little bit of it's bellicose, but then there's a lot of isn't there some talk about we're really getting along well with the Iranians these days.

And I kind of feel is gettable here.